One primary use of a cooktop appliance is to boil water or other liquids. For example, when preparing rice, pasta, or other dishes, it may be desirable to bring a pot of water to boil using high heat and then reduce the level of supplied heat once the water begins to boil. As another example, some dishes may require bringing a sauce to boil and then reducing heat to let the sauce simmer.
However, in certain instances, the user may be distracted or performing another task and, therefore, fail to notice that the water or other liquid has reached a boiling state. Failure to reduce the heat once the liquid has achieved the boiling state can cause a number of problems including, for example, overcooking of the dish, splatter of liquid onto the cooktop surface, or even complete evaporation of the liquid, a condition referred to as “boil-dry,” which can potentially lead to ignition of a fire. Therefore, systems and methods for boil detection and alarming are desirable.
Certain existing systems have been proposed for performing boil detection. As an example, motion sensors can be used to detect motion at the cooktop. However, these systems suffer from significant problems with accuracy, as human motion (e.g. stirring) or rising steam trigger the sensor and leads to a false positive of a boiling event.
As another example, other existing systems may use temperature sensors to attempt to detect a boiling event. However, these systems can suffer from problems with accuracy and granularity, as well. For example, temperature sensors in a generally heated environment such as a cooktop may lead to significant numbers of errors.
Therefore, systems and methods for boil detection that provide improved accuracy are desirable.